Surgeon, author and speaker Sherwin Nuland died on March 3, 2014, at age 83. The author of a dozen books — including the award-winning How We Die, a clear-eyed look at life’s last chapter — Nuland came to TED in 2001 to tell a story he’d never told before.

The world-renowned surgeon, clinical professor of surgery at Yale and best-selling author began his talk with a history of mental health and mental illness … and gradually began to weave in his own story, of a depression so crippling, so impossible to shift, that in his 40s he was in line for a lobotomy. But his young doctor made a bold suggestion, and then stuck to it in the face of widespread doubt: Nuland would try electric shock therapy.

“Sherwin’s talk took us on a journey into the hell of his darkest depression and his improbable journey back. From literally sleeping in the gutter to recovering his life via a caring young doctor who kept him from being lobotomized, Nuland’s powerful storytelling nearly stopped the Monterey conference room from breathing, and then ultimately allowed a tearful catharsis. Nuland affected me more powerfully than any talk before or since. Having lived with the illness for more than 30 years I know how easily it could have been I who was prostrate on the street. I will always be grateful to him for showing me the power of honesty even about the things that terrify.”

“[Nuland] made himself really vulnerable on the stage. He talked about something that his colleagues didn’t know about — that he had suffered from depression so severe that he became catatonic and had undergone electroshock therapy to heal. It made me cry. I thought, ‘This is the weirdest thing, I’m at a conference and I’m crying — I don’t know if I love that or hate that!’”

TED’s Curator, Chris Anderson, sums it up:

“[Nuland’s] talk at TED 12 years ago remains one of the most powerful moments in the conference’s history. He combined brilliant storytelling with remarkable personal candor and vulnerability. He inspired many at the time, and continues to do so today.”

]]>http://blog.ted.com/remembering-sherwin-nuland/feed/10SherwinNuland_01_blog-1emilytedThe anatomy of a turning point, on TED Radio Hourhttp://blog.ted.com/ted-radio-hour-looks-at-the-anatomy-of-a-turning-point/
http://blog.ted.com/ted-radio-hour-looks-at-the-anatomy-of-a-turning-point/#commentsFri, 28 Jun 2013 20:37:01 +0000http://blog.ted.com/?p=79418[…]]]>Your life’s turning point — whether it happens in an instant or is the culmination of gradual change — could occur tomorrow. Would you be ready for it? How would you reconcile your former self with the person you’ve become?

In this week’s TED Radio Hour, we hear from TED speakers forever changed by major and unexpected turning points, and how they dealt with their profound transformation. Surgeon and author Sherwin Nuland begins with the story of his deep depression, his electroshock therapy and the morning he decided to just get over it. Up second, Ric Elias describes what went through his mind as his plane — Flight 1549 — crash–landed in the Hudson River. Next, Maajid Nawaz highlights another kind of turning point: a change so significant that it splits your life in two, into the past and present you. For Nawaz, it was a journey that left him with two conflicting identities: his past as an Islamic extremist and his present as an advocate for democracy.

For Nuland, Elias and Nawaz, substantive change was a choice — they made conscious decisions to recover, to reflect and to reform. But for the episode’s final speaker, Joshua Prager, change was imposed on him. As a teenager, Prager was in a bus accident that broke his neck and left him hemiplegic. He talks about whether, in the interceding decades, it’s the crash or his response to it that defines him.

“[Nuland] made himself really vulnerable on the stage. He talked about something that his colleagues didn’t know about — that he had suffered from depression so severe that he became catatonic and had undergone electroshock therapy to heal. It made me cry,” she tells the site. “I thought, ‘This is the weirdest thing, I’m at a conference and I’m crying — I don’t know if I love that or hate that!’”

What’s the first TED Talk that made you teary eyed? Share in the comments.

]]>http://blog.ted.com/the-first-tedtalk-that-made-our-content-director-cry/feed/6katetedMeet Shlomo Adam, TED volunteer translatorhttp://blog.ted.com/meet_shlomo_ada_1/
http://blog.ted.com/meet_shlomo_ada_1/#commentsFri, 13 Nov 2009 16:47:21 +0000http://blog-staging.ted.com/2009/11/meet_shlomo_ada_1/[…]]]>Since the TED Open Translation Project launched in May of 2009, more than 1,200 translators have joined the effort to make TEDTalks available in non-English languages. One of the very first translators to join the project was Shlomo Adam. Shlomo joined the project before it went public, and contributed both translations and feedback on the system as we built it. He has now translated more than 50 talks into Hebrew.

In the next weeks, the TED Blog will shine the spotlight on more TED translators — offering a glimpse of the people whose efforts continue to enrich the project. We’re proud to make Shlomo our first.

Tell us about yourself.

I’m 55. I was born in Israel. I’ve gone through all kinds of phases in my life. Now live in Kibbutz Mishmar Ha-Emek in Jezrael valley, half an hour’s drive away from Nazareth, five minutes’ drive away from Megiddo. Not that this means anything.

I’ve had the questionable privilege of having learned many practices, including four years of how to be a professional soldier — but that was many years ago when I was young and stupid. (Now I’m merely older.) Eventually it turned out that the things I’m most interested in are:

The Alexander Technique, which I teach

People of all kinds and realms

The way the mind works

Evolution, genes, memes, etc.

Learning

All that plus many more areas of interest.

What drew you to TED?

A dear friend had sent us one of the TEDTalks — the amazing talk by Jill Bolte Taylor, “My stroke of insight.” I felt I had to put Hebrew subtitles on that talk and somehow place it on the web. After preparing it I asked whether anyone at TED would be interested in it. It so happened that TED was just starting the Open Translation Project. That’s how I got to TED.

Why do you translate?

I’ve been translating ever since I started reading English books, simply because I wanted to understand what I was reading and because I love to learn. So, if anyone else can enjoy something I do for myself, why not share it, pretty much the way TED shares their talks?